Swiss National Bank

Selling gold: Switzerland's central bank said it has started the sale of part of its gold reserves and plans to put a maximum of 120 tons on the market by the end of September. The Swiss National Bank initiated the sale Monday, when Switzerland's new currency and payment law came into effect. The government plans to use 1,300 tons of gold--half of the Swiss National Bank's 2,600 tons of reserves--to underpin the Swiss franc.

BERNE (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank will continue to do business with Credit Suisse as it has done in the past despite the bank's guilty plea to helping wealthy Americans dodge taxes, the central bank's chairman said on Tuesday. "We will continue our business relationship with Credit Suisse as was the case in the past," Thomas Jordan said at an event in Bern. Jordan added: "We expect that the U.S. Justice Department treats all banks equally and fairly and...

Swiss gold sale: The Swiss National Bank will be allowed to sell as much as 1,300 metric tons of gold, half its gold reserves, if Swiss voters and the parliament agree to dissolve the Swiss franc's peg to gold, the government said. The SNB, the world's fifth-largest holder of gold, needs to keep reserves of about 1,300 tons to conduct monetary policy, the government said.

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is prepared to use a variety of measures to defend its 1.20 per euro cap on the Swiss franc, including negative interest rates, an SNB board said on Thursday. Asked whether the SNB would follow the European Central Bank if the latter decided to introduce negative interest rates, Fritz Zurbruegg said: "We've always stressed that we have a whole pallet of instruments available ... to defend this minimum exchange rate. "...

The Federal Reserve said Monday that it has expanded credit lines with the central banks of Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and European Union that will provide foreign currency to U.S. banks if needed. Under currency swap arrangements, the Fed provides dollars in exchange for reserves of the other nations' currencies. The expanded credit lines, authorized through Oct. 30, are worth the equivalent of up to $45 billion with the Bank of England, $108 billion with the European Central Bank,...

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank is not expected to lift its lid on the Swiss franc until at least 2015, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday, with some economists suggesting the central bank may never need to officially exit the currency cap at all. The SNB imposed a ceiling on the Swiss franc at 1.20 per euro in September 2011 to fend off deflation and a recession, after investors fleeing the euro zone crisis bid the safe-haven currency up...

Swiss rates cut: Switzerland's central bank cut short-term interest rates in a move economists say is meant to help revive a sluggish economy and weaken the Swiss franc. The Swiss National Bank lowered its discount rate to 2.5 percent from 3 percent, effective Friday. The bank said the move was a response to a recent fall in Swiss money market rates, but economists said the strong franc and weak economy were more critical, especially given the leeway provided by a...

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS has bought back the stabilization fund set up five years ago to bail out the bank during the financial crisis, for $3.762 billion, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) said on Friday. UBS will pay the SNB $1 billion plus half of the remaining amount of the purchase price. The central bank said the repayment would have a favorable impact on its 2013 annual result. In autumn 2008, the Swiss government, the Swiss financial markets watchdog and the SNB...

Gold for sale: The Swiss government submitted draft legislation to parliament on Wednesday that severs the Swiss franc's peg to gold and thus allows the Swiss National Bank to start selling off excess gold reserves. The currency and payments bill, which is expected to take effect in early 2000, implements on a practical level provisions in a new constitution that voters approved in April abolishing the outdated gold standard for the currency. If adopted, the new law would let...

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said on Friday the stabilization fund it set up five years ago to bail out Swiss bank UBS had repaid the loan granted by the SNB, allowing UBS to go ahead with its plan to repurchase the once-toxic assets. UBS may now exercise an option to repurchase the StabFund from the SNB. The price will be determined based on the value of the assets in the portfolio that will be valued by independent agents, the Swiss central bank...

April 22 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group said on Monday it struck a deal to buy one of Credit Suisse's private equity businesses with $9 billion in assets under management. The companies did not disclose the purchase price for the Swiss bank's Strategic Partners unit, which specializes in buying and selling stakes in private equity funds. Credit Suisse in July announced that it was selling the business as part of a plan launched after the Swiss National Bank...

ZURICH, July 8 (Reuters) - The amount of cash commercial banks hold with the Swiss National Bank rose last week, data showed on Monday. The level is partly a measure of how inclined banks are to find an ultra-safe home for their money and may also reflect efforts by the SNB to defend the 1.20 per euro cap it imposed on Sept. 6, 2011 on the soaring safe-haven Swiss franc. Sight deposits of domestic banks: Week ending Amount in Sfr millions July 5 320 960 ...

Swiss lending gold: The Swiss National Bank said that last month it began lending gold to other banks, although it will keep a "considerable" amount of its 2,600 metric tons of gold reserves. The central bank's move to lend gold under repurchase agreements was its first gold transaction of any kind since 1976. The SNB is still barred by law from selling gold, although the government has said it will let Swiss people vote on whether to scrap that law. The government's...

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank would not jump to the rescue of any banks that found themselves insolvent following fines to settle U.S. tax evasion probes, the central bank's chairman said. "It is not the National Bank's job to save banks if they are insolvent. It has a duty to contribute to the system's stability," Thomas Jordan told the Schweiz am Sonntag newspaper in an interview. The Swiss government is trying to push through a law that will...

Switzerland's President Flavio Cotti on Friday condemned an American lawyer's plans for a class-action suit targeting the Swiss National Bank for accepting gold seized from victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The central bank also vowed a fight, saying that such a suit "would lack any legal basis whatsoever." Michael Hausfeld, a lawyer for Nazi Holocaust victims and heirs in a suit filed in New York against Swiss commercial banks, said he is planning a new class-action...

April 22 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group said on Monday it struck a deal to buy one of Credit Suisse's private equity businesses with $9 billion in assets under management. The companies did not disclose the purchase price for the Swiss bank's Strategic Partners unit, which specializes in buying and selling stakes in private equity funds. Credit Suisse in July announced that it was selling the business as part of a plan launched after the Swiss National Bank...

In the latest attempt to force Swiss banks to compensate for profiting from their dealings with Germany during World War II, lawyers for Holocaust survivors and their heirs have brought suit against the Swiss National Bank, which laundered vast amounts of gold that had been looted by the Nazis. The gold was taken from national treasuries of occupied countries and from the homes and even the bodies of Nazi Holocaust victims. The class-action suit, filed in federal court in...

provided its biggest bank, UBS AG, a lifeline worth tens of billions of dollars Thursday and pushed Credit Suisse Group AG to raise funds, joining authorities around the world in shoring up banks. Hit harder than any other European financial institution by losses stemming from bad investments in subprime American mortgage debt, UBS will receive as much as $60 billion from the Swiss National Bank. The country's other banking powerhouse, Credit Suisse, announced it would raise $8.75...